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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Author
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Topic: Infiltrator Premier Technical Glitches
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Mike Schulz
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 122
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: May 2007
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posted 07-24-2016 04:11 PM
quote: Martin McCaffery
No test screening? No backup file? Is that really how premieres are handled these days?
Not in Los Angeles. We still take things very seriously for a premiere out here whether it be film or digital. At my main venue, we still have our xenon Christie projector sitting next to our new laser projectors. We do a full run-through on both projection and sound systems usually the day before the premiere and sometimes early in the morning on the day of. We don't take any chances on a premiere. Ever. There is no excuse for the projectionist not catching that the movie didn't have subtitles showing up. It most definitely should have been caught well in advance of the big show. I can't imagine the studios having a different procedure for premieres in New York so I'm not sure who is to blame for this one. We also might not have all of the details of this event either. It is still a possibility that they did do a proper QC and run-through with everything working properly and then for whatever reason, the projector or server decided it didn't like subtitles anymore. I remember our DSS-200 having issues with subtitles disappearing intermittently on one of the older firmware versions. Let's hope this wasn't due to projectionist incompetence. Then again, there might be an opportunity for one of us to get a new job in NY in the near future ![[Cool]](cool.gif)
EDIT - Also this:
quote: Frank Cox
Wasn't I assured a couple of week ago here that qc screenings are not necessary?
Why, yes I was.
Per your own link, you must have again glossed over the details of what was said just as you did in that thread. For example, one of Leo's replies to you:
quote:
As everyone above has pointed out, previewing a show in its entirety is usually impossible, because:
1 - The budget isn't there to pay a projectionist to do it, except if it's a really high profile event (e.g. a premiere, or a VIP is doing a Q & A);
I'm pretty sure a premiere qualifies as one of the times you absolutely do a full run-through before the show!
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Randy Stankey
Film God
Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 07-25-2016 01:36 AM
quote: Carsten Kurz
Wouldn't you think that at some point you would naturally get lazy about this if so little actually goes wrong?
For more than ten years, at Mercyhurst, I pre-screened every single movie that I played (or had a trusted minion screen the movie for me) even though I double and triple checked every foot of every reel of film, myself. I knew that the projector and sound system were working exactly the way I wanted them to work because I, personally cleaned, checked and maintained all of the equipment on a continual basis. I still pre-screened every movie even though I was certain that, but for an unforeseeable circumstance, when showtime came, the movie would play correctly.
In all those years, the number of problems that were found in all those movies could be counted on my fingers and, In my memory, there were two or three show stoppages with customers in the auditorium.
I didn't get to play very many current movies. Maybe I got to show a few second-runs of popular movies but 90% of them were boring foreign or independent movies. (French "talking movies" where the characters sit in a cafe, smoking Gouloises, drinking Pernod and pontificating about how their lives have gone wrong...those are the WORST!)
I did all of that because it was my job.
Nowadays, people bitch when they have to click a button on a computer screen in order to show a movie yet they wonder why a Hollywood premiere fails because of some vague "technical problem."
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Randy Stankey
Film God
Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 07-25-2016 08:45 AM
quote: Steve Guttag
The number of lost shows with digital has absolutely gone up as compared to film. The number of maligned shows has probably gone down though. You can have a digital system sail through a tech-check and still crash and burn on the big show. Mechanical systems normally give some sort of warning about their pending failure, digital systems don't.
I think it's kind of strange how it seems like people will accept a failure in a digital system where they would not accept a similar failure in a mechanical/analogue system.
If this premiere had been presented on film and some comparable kind of failure had happened, I bet people would have been called out by name and heads would have rolled.
But, since things are digital, they blithely accept it as if nothing is wrong.
As a person who tries, very hard, to do the best job he can, I feel insulted when other people just coast on through their jobs and don't seem to care. I might not get everything right. I often make mistakes but I do my best to fix them when they happen. I get pissed off when some people don't seem to even put in a modest effort and, when things go wrong, they just say, "Oh, well..."
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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!
Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 07-25-2016 10:21 AM
Randy, where did I give the impression that it was "acceptable" in the digital world?
One thing digital does is lure people into a false sense of "everything is alright" and hands-off. You have these yahoos telling exhibitors to eliminate the booth and put the projectors in hush boxes in the cinema itself. So just who is really going to maintain that forgotten about projector? Just how good a convergence/boresite are you going to do on a projector you can't get it and when you do work on it, it isn't in final position?
As I said before more film shows were maligned (scratched, dirty, out of frame...or otherwise less than the quality as distributed...heck many prints weren't worth showing as distributed).
Whereas with film systems, often the problem was such that it could be resolved in the time it takes to make a splice or some such thing...now it is going to be more time as often a tech will need to be involved to figure out what is wrong and what the appropriate fix is. This takes time that leads to a canned show. Furthermore, the repair prices on digital systems are many, many times the cost of a film system so you are less apt to see spares of critical parts in the booth. How many of you keep a spare ICP, light engine or cinema controller (aka PIB)? These can all be show-stoppers. Keeping an Enigma handy is also a good idea...IF YOU KEEP IT CHARGED.
Oh...and if you DO keep all of these spares at the ready (to the tune of nearly $30K (depending on model and manufacturer)...is it comforting to know that your warranty on them are expiring pretty rapidly!
Compare that to film systems. What did you need to keep as spares? A couple of gears, some belts maybe an intermittent? One's overhead to ensure a 100% up time has certainly gone way up. Gone are the days of a diode fixing a lamp power supply (aka rectifier)...now you need a spare LPS(U).
I can say that for ALL of the studio screenings I've done in the digital era (even just for press), there was a technical run through with just me in the audience to verify that all should perform as it should. If there was no run-through, shame on the studio that allowed that. You can't catch the unpredictable but you CAN catch things like wrong configurations or perhaps bad content.
I have one site that maintains TWO complete systems (projectors and servers)...all shows are 1-offs, they have to work.
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 07-25-2016 04:15 PM
quote: Steve Guttag
Now as to subtitles and 4K. Subtitles are defined as to their location (left/center/right) and lines above the bottom. The disconnect comes from that subtitles are generated by the projector while the image is generated by the server. So, when you play a 2K movie with subtitles on a 4K projector, the image gets scaled but the subtitles go where they would on a 4K image...which is cut off since that is now below the image. What one needs to do is in their PCF selection is to use the 2K PCF for all 2K subtitled features. This defines the image area as 2048x858 (for scope) or 1998x1080 (for flat)...then the subtitle engine (CineCanvas) will place the subtitles referenced to those positions (correctly). If you don't use PCFs and need to do it the hard way (you Christie people, though you too can use PCFs if you tick the box), then merely make sure your input file is correct with the right resolutions.
Thanks Steve. I remembered the principle of what I was trying to achieve and that you helped me with (telling a 4K projector to put XML subtitles in the right place on a 2K canvas), but not the terminology and precise sequence of steps, because I did this almost two years ago and my memory is not what it once was.
My broader point is that for a major premiere with big stars in the house, this gotcha really should have got them far enough beforehand to enable them to dig themselves out of the hole in time for the show that mattered.
As someone who sometimes does officiate in the booth at A-list premieres, I would genuinely like to know what went wrong here: not for the purpose of recriminating or accusing anyone of incompetence, but to learn from the mistake and to add the necessary check to the preparations I make in future (unless it's one I do already and they just didn't do).
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